Dutch Windmills Will Power Google Eemshaven Datacenter.

The Dutch  windmills and dikes  are well known to the world. They have provided power to mill grains, pump water for reclaiming land from the sea and lately to attract tourists. The Kinderdijk mill site is a UNESCO World Heritage site, where you can see and admire those large wood structures with vanes known as sails, are dreamy reminders of technical past of the Dutch.
The knowledge transferred well in to the current windmills, Wind Turbines, the huge towers with even larger blades converting wind in to electricity will power a very 21st century Google data center, in Eemshaven, the Netherlands. The
Google signed a long-term agreement with Dutch power company Eneco, to power the data center entirely by renewable energy from its first day of operation, in 2016. The agreement is to buy the entire production of Eneco windfarm -- currently under construction at Delfzijl, near Eemshaven -- for the next ten years.
Dutch windmills to power Google’s Eemshaven data centre

Come See the GreenHouse Gas Emissions With Google LatLong

GHG Emissions.
From dedicated scientists, governing bodies, media and everyday folks like us will be able to visualize how CHG emissions by industrialized nations.
The map takes one through from global view down to individual country level, and also different CHGs like CO2, CH4 etc.
One of the best visualization tools that I have seen a while.
The informative map was created by United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) in collaboration with several Googlers.

Google LatLong: Visualizing greenhouse gas emissions

Tags: Green house gas, CHG, CO2, CH4, UNFCCC, Google

Going Clean With Energy By 2030

While many people all over the world have been looking into the energy puzzle from different angles, the energy team at Google has also been busy crunching the numbers to see how we could reduce fossil fuel use. This analysis, which was led by Jeffery Greenblatt, points to a direction that might help us to steer away from using coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030. This promise to cut oil use for cars by 40%.
You can read about the plan with complete links to various think tanks that are on the same path to resolve the issues we are having with global warming and energy.
Official Google Blog: Clean energy 2030:

Tags: Google, global warming, Google energy team, clean coal

Project 10, From Google! Be Good To Ourselves

Happy Birthday Google!
Got an idea how to help another? Please visit Google's Project 10 tell what your idea is!

Tags: project 10, Google, Google Birthday

Google Takes Frog Out Of The Pot With Clean Energy.

If you ever hear the phrase ""A frog in water doesn't feel it boil in time. Dude, we are that frog."" regarding climate change, good you are on our side. Otherwise you can visit grist.org and educate yourself a little more.
But Google and its green initiative has taken another step to take us, frogs out of the pot that might boil in time. Google has already done some work regarding going green and staying green.
But the new initiative is to generate one Gigawatt of electricity, renewable energy, cheaper than burning coal. The project is known as RE>C.
Even though engineers are the core of this research an development, Google also sees the need to promote the technology through government initiatives and by advancing a policy agenda to stimulate clean energy projects.
Google is also putting money where the mouth is and have already spent closer to $45 Million towards solar thermal, advanced wind, and enhanced geothermal technologies through google.org.
So even if Google does not pull us all out of the pot, it might teach us how to jump out it.
You will find more information at;
Official Google Blog: Building a future that's clean and green

Tags: Google, renewable energy, solar thermal, advanced wind, geothermal energy

Google.org Invests 10.25 Million On Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).

Google continues to invest in renewable energy both in the corporate Google and through google.org. Google already has Solar power at its Mountain View headquarters. The latest act by Google to invest in EGS or Enhanced Geothermal Systems which expands the potential of geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. Following is the Press release.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the continuing effort to develop electricity from renewable energy cheaper than from coal, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), through its philanthropic arm Google.org, announced $10.25 million in investments in a breakthrough energy technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Today's announcement also includes funding for research on next-generation geothermal resource mapping, EGS information tools, and a policy agenda for geothermal energy.

EGS expands the potential of geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam and hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.

A recent MIT report on EGS estimates that just 2% of the heat below the continental United States between 3 and 10 kilometers, depths within the range of current drilling technology, is more than 2,500 times the country's total annual energy use.

"EGS could be the 'killer app' of the energy world. It has the potential to deliver vast quantities of power 24/7 and be captured nearly anywhere on the planet. And it would be a perfect complement to intermittent sources like solar and wind," said Dan Reicher, Director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org.

Google's Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative focuses on solar thermal power, advanced wind, EGS and other potential breakthrough technologies. Google has set a goal to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity, enough to power a city the size of San Francisco, in years, not decades.

To advance EGS, Google.org announced funding for two companies and a university:

• AltaRock Energy, Inc.: $6.25 million investment to develop innovative technologies to achieve significant cost reductions and improved performance in EGS projects. For more information, please visit http://www.altarockenergy.com/.
• Potter Drilling, Inc.: $4 million investment in two tranches, to develop new approaches to lower the cost and expand the range of deep hard rock drilling, a critical element to large-scale deployment of EGS. For more information, please visit http://www.potterdrilling.com/.
• Southern Methodist University Geothermal Lab: $489,521 grant to improve understanding of the size and distribution of geothermal energy resources and to update geothermal mapping of North America. For more information, please visit http://www.smu.edu/geothermal/.

"Innovation is the path to massive quantities of cleaner, cheaper energy. The people we're funding today have a real shot at lowering the cost of EGS, and bringing us closer to our goal of Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal," added Dr. Larry Brilliant, executive director of Google.org.

"EGS is critical to the clean electricity revolution we need to solve the climate crisis, but EGS hasn't received the attention it merits. That's why we're pressing for expanded support from government and increased investment from the private sector," said Reicher. "We're big believers in EGS and we're looking for more opportunities."

Ongoing Commitments

Today's announcement represents the latest step in Google's commitment to a clean energy future.

Google has been working hard on energy efficiency and making its business environmentally sustainable. To this end, the company has taken concrete steps to reduce its carbon footprint and accelerate improvements in green technology, including:

• Developing cutting-edge energy efficiency technology to power and cool its data centers in the U.S. and around the world using 50% less energy than the industry standard
• Generating electricity for its Mountain View campus from a 1.6 megawatt corporate solar panel installation, one of the largest in the U.S.
• Accelerating development and adoption of plug-in electric vehicles through the RechargeIT initiative (http://www.google.org/recharge/)
• Joining with other industry leaders to form the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a consortium that advocates the design and use of more energy-efficient computers and servers (http://www.climatesaverscomputing.org/)
• Working on policies that encourage renewable energy development and deployment, such as a U.S. Renewable Energy Standard.

For more information on EGS, including a 3-D model of a project in Australia, a Google Earth layer, an introductory YouTube video, and our policy brief, see http://www.google.org/egs/.

For more information on the Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, including $30 million in investments to advance solar thermal and advanced wind technologies, see http://www.google.org/rec.html.

For broadcast-standard video and other multimedia files for the announcement, see http://www.thenewsmarket.com/google.

For more information on Google's commitment to a clean energy future, see http://www.google.com/renewableenergy.

Tags: Enhanced Geothermal Systems, EGS, Google, Solar power, renewable energy, google.org

Earth Day And Beyond According To Google, Earth Day '08

Although Google is known for it's capabilities of search and other internet related services like Gmail, Google Docs, AdSense, YouTube and others, they have been pretty active in the environmental face too. There are quite a few projects that Google is involved in helping our earth to face the global warming problem. The Solar Power project, going carbon neutral, and Progressive Automotive X PRIZE 100MPGe car, some of the big projects that Google involved in and excel in. But there a bunch more and as the Earth Day Nears, Google is working even harder to do more. The following information is from Official Google Blog.
Google is also providing you with tools to tell the world what you're doing for Earth Day (and beyond) by uploading a message to Google's Earth Day '08 site. Get together with friends, family or coworkers, grab a camera, and take five minutes to put yourselves on the map. From the everyday to the extraordinary, we want to hear about your plans to take on climate change and make our planet a greener place.

• Hot on the heels of last week's Google Transit launch in Chicago, a whole new batch of transit agencies have made their data available on Google Maps. From Lubbock, Texas to Walla Walla, Washington, people in communities across the country will now find it easier than ever to leave their cars at home.

• I hope you'll take a moment to download the newest version of Google Earth, which launched earlier today. While you're exploring its fancy new features, be sure to check out some of the latest Global Awareness layers (found in the left-side "Layers" panel) that celebrate the beauty and biodiversity on Earth, like ARKive's Endangered Species and Greenpeace's Stop Climate Change. And I encourage you to visit the Google Earth Outreach Showcase, which features a number of environmentally-focused KMLs that can be downloaded and viewed in Google Earth.
• If you use Google Checkout to donate to a non-profit environmental organization on behalf of anyone you know, we'll generate a personal view of Google Maps that includes a marker representing your donation. The people you donate on behalf of will get an email about your contribution, and if they follow your example, their donation will be marked on your map as well. We'll connect the markers, so that you can watch how your generosity spreads as more and more people donate. Visit Checkout's Earth Day page to learn more.

Official Google Blog: We can't wait for Earth Day
tag: Earth Day, Google, Google Solar Power project, going carbon neutral, X PRIZE 100MPGe car, ARKive's Endangered Species, Greenpeace's Stop Climate Change, Earth Day '08, Google Transit, Google Maps, Google Earth,

2007 Innovate Or Die invention contest Winners Announced

The 2007 Innovate or Die pedal powered invention contest was presented by Google, Specialized Bicycles, and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners . The contest winners will each receive a Specialized World Bike and, as a group, a check for $5000.
The contest is over. And the Grand Prize, goes to the invention in the YouTube Video. The Aquaduct, the entry from a team of five California design students, addresses the needs of 1.1 million people in the world who don't have access to clean drinking water.
More information about winner, the runners-up, and the project itself, could be found at the Innovate or Die website. To see videos of all 100 qualified inventions, visit the You-Tube page.

tag: youtube, Innovate or Die, Google, Specialized Bicycles, Innovate or Die winner